Moral of the story
by CreamoCrop
Summary: "But alas, he is always too far from her. Most of the time it is only his back that she could see. She had tried running after him, but her slender legs were no match to his racing chariot. The sun god is simply out of her reach." [Sherlolly semi-AU]


"Do you know the story of the Sun and the Moon?"

The moment the question left her tongue, regret quickly sank in. He despises idle chat and there she is trying to start one. In her defence though, it is a habit that is hard to break, even at the presence of the man whose first sentence to her was _"Don't bother with small talk. I need to see the body."_

One of the first things she learned about Sherlock Holmes was that he'd rather sit in deafening silence than engage in a conversation regarding weather, celebrity gossip, politics, and Toby's _quite frankly disturbing_ obsession with her Mickey Mouse socks.

Above all this, Sherlock definitely… _absolutely_ loathes any topic regarding Astronomy. She suspects his antagonistic behaviour towards that branch of science had something to do with John's write-up of the Study in Pink and the consequent ribbing that the consulting detective had experienced for his missing knowledge of elementary Astronomy.

 _But for god's sake that had been five years ago!_ So really, he can't blame her for her choice of topic because for one, the fungi in the petri dishes are _really_ taking their time with their reactions and two, the story is truly interesting and she _really_ have to talk about it.

"I am sorry _, what?_ "

The reaction on his face is quite comical. Normally upon being confronted by her attempts of casual chat, he'd merely say her name with a warning tone without even looking up from whatever he's doing or holding. However, this time he must have been truly taken aback for he not only looked up from his examination of the _definitely exciting_ developments (if there's any) on the petri dishes, but his disbelief and annoyance is clearly etched in his handsome face.

His handsome face which is scrunched in what should have been an unattractive way, but had somehow still caused flutters in her stomach.

As the last of the split-second butterflies left, her unique sense of humour came rushing back in as she entertained the thought that she could probably gauge his degree of disconcertment by counting the number of wrinkles on his face.

Her passing thought almost caused her to burst with hooting laughter. Fortunately, she was able to contain herself by imagining what John had secretly dubbed "Sherlock's grumpy face" As is, he's probably close to having a pouting session. Instead, she decided to focus on delivering her story in the hopes of providing entertainment and smoothing some of his and _her_ ruffled feathers.

"You know...the fable of the Sun and the Moon. I know you don't like Astronomy but this one's more about the fable and I saw this in Youtube. Well, more like Meena linked me this clip she found during one of her searches for a funny cat video. And since I know for a fact that you like perusing Youtube, I thought you might have chanced upon this clip since it's pretty popular and has a lot of views."

Ever since it had been revealed that Sherlock is a regular browser of Youtube, his channel subscription had been a part of her "Things I may never know but am dying to know" list. With his heavily guarded personality, a glimpse in his channel would at least let her see a glimmer of Sherlock's lighter side. Granted, his view history is probably inundated with lab demonstrations, unsolved crime documentaries and various lectures, but she supposes that with Youtube's tricky public proprietary suggestion algorithm, _anyone_ could be brought into its recesses that they _never thought_ they'd visit.

 _Anyone,_ especially a man who searches for instructions on how to fold Sydney Opera House Serviettes.

"No, no I haven't. It's not exactly in my list of things to search or watch."

 _'And what exactly are the things within that list?'_ Molly wondered as she watched Sherlock replace the petri dish he had been holding, back into the table top. Like her, he must have realized that no amount of intense staring will make the fungi react faster, hence Molly's attempt to start a conversation in order to pass the time.

Sherlock's face had visibly relaxed as it became apparent that he is not about to be roped into a conversation regarding his least favoured topic. However, he is still apprehensive with Molly's attempt at another simple chatter. He had however observed, that lately he doesn't mind her attempts as much as before.

Sometimes, it's even… _welcomed._

"Oh well, you should watch it."

His increasing comfort towards Molly's idle talk does not however, mean that he wants to encourage it. So with admittedly, feigned interest, he went back into picking petri dishes and looking at them in the hopes of seeing even _just a minute_ change.

Upon seeing that Sherlock had decided to go back to what is obviously a pretend act of checking his fungi cultures, Molly made the decision to go ahead and dive head first. After all, if he chooses to tune her out, at least she will be able to get off some of the weight that had _inexplicably_ nestled in her chest after she had watched the clip.

"You see, it's a stop motion video showing the story of the moon goddess and the sun god who both lived in the sky."

Truth be told, ever since she first watched the clip at her office during a lazy afternoon, it had boggled her enough that she spent her remaining office hours and half of her night searching for the origin of the fable. She had been quickly consumed by various facts regarding different cultural beliefs but none of them released her from the heaviness that had surrounded her. In fact, it had already been a week since she first played the video but she still feels _burdened._

What's more annoying is that she doesn't even know _why_ she feels oddly attached to a 10 minute clip. All she knows for sure is that each scene, from beginning to end, is seared in her mind.

This little tete-a-tete with Sherlock is just a show that she's putting for her little psychologist inside, who had been niggling her all week to find someone she could talk to _and_ – if Sherlock hopefully remains unfocused long enough– _rant to_ about the video.

"Reaaally, Molly." Sherlock drawled. "Where else would a _moon goddess_ and a _sun god_ live other than the _sky_?"

 _Git._

* * *

 ** _"Once upon a time –"_**

 _"Really, you're going to start off with such a cliché sentence."_

 _"Shut up, Sherlock."_

* * *

 ** _"In a land before our time –"_**

" _Isn't that a movie you brought for Elizabeth?_ "

" _I'm surprised you know that._ "

" _There were talking_ _ **and**_ _singing dinosaurs, Molly. Dinosaurs who were also probably drawn wrong. Why did you have to subject our godchild with such nonsense?_ "

Sigh.

* * *

 ** _"Once, there was –"_**

" _That's just a variation of once upon a time._ "

" _Aren't you supposed to be ignoring me by now?_ "

* * *

On second thought, maybe silence suits them better.


End file.
